A/N: Chapter seven. As I mentioned before, this chapter will solely be about Barry, team Flash, and the CCPDs battle for Central City. The chapter right after this will cover the other groups of heroes accordingly.

BATTLE OF CENTRAL CITY: PART ONE

EARTH 1

1034 EST

CENTRAL CITY

"How is she?" Barry asked as he crossed his arms and leaned against the door to the medical bay within the cortex of STAR Labs.

Lyanna laid asleep on a bed at the center of the medical room. Both she and Barry wore short-sleeved t-shirts from STAR Labs, their tops were damaged from Brainiac's experimentation on Lyanna and his fight against Barry. Lyanna had practically passed out by the time Barry had gotten her to Caitlin. The auburn-haired doctor remained by her bedside, checking up on her before turning to Barry.

"She's extremely malnourished and starved," Caitlin reported. "Especially for a speedster. We gave her a few of those protein bars Cisco made to manage your metabolism. All she needs now is a bit of a rest. She'll be fine."

Barry nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Cait."

Caitlin smiled softly. "Thank you. For coming back. We were losing hope. Especially after…Brainiac's message."

Barry looked down as he slightly tensed, swallowing a small lump within his throat. Caitlin approached her friend slowly, seeing his reaction.

"Did you know?" Caitlin asked. "Before Cisco and the team told you? Is that why you went to Brainiac's ship alone?"

Barry looked up at her as he nodded regretfully. "Lyla showed me the message back at the hangar we were all at. I tried to negotiate a deal with Brainiac. To get him to withdraw the Dominators if I turned myself in. He refused and kept me prisoner for a bit. I got out, found Lyanna while I was trying to, then we both escaped."

Caitlin nodded understandingly. "Are you…are you gonna be okay?"

Barry shook his head. "No, Cait…no, I won't be."

Caitlin put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Talk to a friend?"

Barry sighed as he began to think of Cisco, who'd lost his brother due to Flashpoint. "I already killed one innocent man with Flashpoint and started this entire war. Now, millions of people are suffering and dying. On top of that, Brainiac will continue thousands every hour as soon as he realizes me and Lyanna are gone. And the whole world knows I'm the Flash."

"Brainiac's a genocidal psychopath, you can't blame yourself for his actions." Caitlin urged.

Barry scoffed. "Well I can't stop him either."

"No," Caitlin admitted. "But we can. The Dominators may have taken this planet, but we can take it back. Starting with the city."

Barry took in a deep breath as he nodded. He wasn't entirely convinced, but regardless, he still had a mission to do. He still had to lead and carry on. He gave Caitlin a look of thanks before he got off the doorframe and turned around to find Cisco walking up to him.

"How's your new friend?" Cisco asked, nudging his head in Lyanna's direction.

"She'll live," Barry replied. "Thank you."

Cisco chuckled weakly. "What're friends for, am I right?"

Barry eyed him carefully with a heavy look on his face. "You sure we're good, man."

Cisco put a hand on his shoulder. "We're good, man. You're my friend. This timeline or the next."

Barry nodded gratefully as Cisco's hand slipped off his shoulder.

"You gonna be okay?" Cisco asked. "You know, with your identity out there and all?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we have time for it," Barry said. "Any word from the others."

Cisco sighed. "Only the Legends. Firestorm and Sara radioed in about an hour ago. They're in Japan and heading up north to investigate some Dominator energy signature the Waverider picked up."

"Alright," Barry acknowledged. "No word from the others?"

"Well, not really. We saw a news report that had some footage of Kara, Diana, and Arthur in Paris against the Dominators. They look like they're doing well, but that's it from them. I tracked the Batplane to Egypt just now. So far, that's it."

"Batman must've taken them to investigate that signature in Egypt he was talking about."

"You really think he's onto something there?"

"If he took his group from the Canadian front all the way there, definitely. It might just be the best lead we've gotten in the last few hours."

Cisco nodded. "In the meantime, we've been trying to deal with Grodd, the gorillas, and the Dominators here. CCPD's in the speed lab with Singh, we've armored them up with some weaponry and tech from the STAR Labs archives. Jesse and Wally suited up."

"Wally?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I got him a suit," Cisco explained. "A.R.G.U.S. is transporting Felicity here soon, I'm going out there with you guys, so she'll replace me here at the desk."

"We're gonna take this city back," Barry promised. "And once we do, we're gonna take the whole world back."

Cisco smiled as the cortex filled up with H.R., Joe, Wally, Harry, and Jesse, all of whom met with Barry.

"He's alive and he's alive," H.R. celebrated as he wrapped Barry in an embrace. "Welcome back to the land of the living, B.A!"

Barry let out a small laugh. "I went to an alien ship, not the afterlife, H.R."

"You're a bit too young for the second anyway." Joe muttered as he quickly embraced his son, while Wally patted his shoulder.

"Looking good, Kid Flash." Barry commented as he eyed Wally's suit.

"Feels tough." Wally said excitedly.

"Where's Iris?" Barry wondered, not entirely curious as he preferred to not deal with her at any given moment.

"Time Vault," Jesse explained. "She wanted a break from all of it."

Barry simply nodded. "I'm gonna meet with Singh and CCPD. We need to be ready."

"To take the city back?" H.R. whispered excitedly, rapidly tapping his drumsticks on the desk.

"You bet your ass we are," Barry declared. "These bastards have been in my city long enough and I'm gonna wipe them out if I have to."

Barry turned away from the team as he walked down the halls and headed to the speed lab, leaving his friends in a pile of shock and awe as they watched him leave.

"That man has no chill anymore." Wally commented, breaking the silence awkwardly as he was met with stares from the rest of the team.

In the speed lab, Barry came through the entrance as he noticed over fifty officers in the center. They strapped guns to their holsters, wore kevlar vests, and readied the gear and weaponry they got from the STAR Labs facility. The officers eventually noticed Barry as they slowed down before stopping. Whispers went around the room as Barry slowly approached them. They knew. The entire CCPD knew his secret. So did the whole world. He was The Flash, his identity revealed. It felt different walking amongst his fellow co-workers and officers feeling unmasked without even wearing the suit. Barry managed to catch a glimpse of Julian Albert, who like every other officer in the speed lab, stared at him. The officers eventually split up, clearing a path to Singh, who approached Barry.

"Captain Singh." Barry greeted as he held his hand out to his former boss.

Singh returned a solemn look as he shook Barry's hand. "Flash…good to have you back."

"So all of you know…" Barry said as he took a look around his old co-workers.

"It explains why you're late all the time at least." Singh quipped as small chuckles went around the room.

Barry let out a quick breath in the form of a laugh. "Yeah, well, I guess it's meant to counteract the whole super speed thing. Regardless, I'm gonna need your help. All of yours. We can take this city back, but only if we do it together."

"You have our full support and cooperation," Singh promised as he looked around to his officers. "Isn't that right, ladies and gentlemen?"

"Yes, captain!" The officers yelled in unison as they raised their weapons in the air.

Barry looked at Singh, who nodded at him confidently. "Gear up, we roll out in ten."

Barry, Wally, Jesse, and Cisco were in the speed lab. Singh, Joe, and the officers had split into five units. Two for evacuations, two for rescuing hostages downtown, and one for patrol. Cisco breached the units to their positions as Team Flash stayed back a few more moments. Wally, Jesse, and Cisco were suited up. Barry, on the other hand, had refused to wear his old suit. Instead, he simply wore his black cargo pants, black sneakers, and v-neck, black, short-sleeved t-shirt. Cisco approached his friend as the two spoke.

"Still not suiting up?" Cisco asked.

Barry shook his head. "I'm going out there…but not as The Flash. At least, not in the suit."

"Why?" Cisco had a feeling he knew the answer regardless.

"I can't go out there with that mask or that suit on me, Cisco," Barry sighed. "Not after what's happening, not after-"

"Your identity being revealed?" Cisco finished as Barry nodded. "So what's the plan?"

"You, Wally, and Jesse head down south and stop the group of Dominators and gorillas tearing themselves apart there," Barry explained. "I'll head up North, rip apart the gorillas' base camps and confront Grodd directly."

"By yourself again?" Cisco asked wearily. "You really sure that's a good idea after last time?"

"That was different. I let my guard down and it won't happen again," Barry stated. "Besides, I have a bit of a strategy and a plan this time."

Cisco was about to speak when he paused as he looked over Barry's shoulder, visibly eyeing something. Or rather…someone. Barry whirled around to face the direction of Cisco's glance as he saw Lyanna standing a few feet past the entrance into the speed lab. He quickly walked towards her as they stood a mere couple feet apart.

"Hey…" Barry said softly.

Lyanna smiled lightly. "Hi."

"How're you feeling?" Barry immediately asked.

"Better," Lyanna sighed as she nodded. "Loads."

"What're you doing here?"

"I'm going out there with you."

"Don't you still need rest or-" Barry tried to say.

Lyanna immediately cut him off. "I've been a speedster longer than you, Barry. I've dealt with things like the Dominators and telepathic gorillas. Besides, the moment you go out there, Brainiac will know for sure you've escaped. If he comes for you, I can help you stop him."

Barry sighed as he pursed his lips reluctantly, thinking through Lyanna words.

"You saved me from Brainiac," She said. "And you promised to help me find my daughter again. This is the least I can do in return. Let me help."

Barry had to concede. "Alright…you're with me. We're gonna be going up north in the city, we take out the gorillas' base camp and target Grodd himself as well as his largest army."

"Gorilla Grodd?" Lyanna asked, raising her eyebrows.

"You know him?" Barry inquired.

"He was one of the greatest war generals back on my Earth," Lyanna explained. "Until the Multiverse Council had to interfere and killed him in battle."

"Any chance this Multiverse council can help us?" Barry asked hopefully.

Lyanna sighed, regretfully shaking her head. "I left them years ago to stay with my daughter and if they haven't shown up here by now, it means they won't or can't interfere. I'm sorry, Barry."

Barry nodded. "It's alright…we'll do the best with what we've got."

Lyanna smiled weakly.

Cisco, Wally, and Jesse, went through a breach as they headed down south of Central City. Barry and Lyanna sped out of the speed lab and out of the STAR Labs facility, him with a trail of orange lightning and her with a trail of white lightning.

From the cortex of the STAR Labs facility, Felicity sat behind the main desk with its three sets of computers and three sets of keyboards. A.R.G.U.S. had set themselves up in the cortex, the archives, and the speed lab while Lyla stood behind Felicity. On the four main screens by the wall in front of them, Felicity had pulled up security camera footage of evacuations on the destroyed bridges with the breaches and by the docks with the ferries. On the computer screens by the desk, she pulled out blue, two-dimensional satellite tracking which tracked Cisco, Wally, and Jesse moving down south. It also tracked Barry and Lyanna moving up north.

"There they go." Felicity announced wearily.

"Let's hope they can make some progress," Lila added. "God knows we'll need it."

Barry and Lyanna sped through miles and miles of city streets and rooftops as they tore apart gorilla camps by running through them, phasing, and throwing lightning. The duo skidded to a halt as they found themselves downtown, where Joe and Singh's unit of cops were evacuating as many civilians as they could.

"What do we do?" Lyanna asked in the midst of the battered and damaged street.

"Neutralize the gorillas." Barry replied, pointing to a herd of fifty armored gorillas approaching them with spears in their hands.

Lyanna cracked her neck as her hands began vibrating while simultaneously coursing with white lightning and electricity. She extended her arms before slamming her hands together as a shockwave with white sparks in the air blasted forward from her, heading in the gorillas' direction. Glass from windows shattered and poured on the ground, cars flipped over, the asphalt of the streets cracked. The gorillas were all sent flying like toys thrown by a five-year-old as white lightning coursed their bodies before they crashed on the ground. All fifty of them remained on the ground, unconscious and unable to continue in the battle any further.

"You gotta teach me that." Barry muttered in awe.

Lyanna smirked. "I will…soon enough."

A roar tore through the air as Lyanna and Barry saw one particular armored gorilla jump off a car and onto the ground. Barry tensed as he clenched his fists.

Lyanna seemed to notice as she eyed the gorilla in front of them. "Grodd, I presume?"

"Yeah," Barry muttered. "And he's a pain in the ass."

"Central City has already fallen, Flash," Grodd sneered. "As has the entire world. We will crush you and your other allies…then, we will enslave those who survive and persecute those who resist."

"Let's jump this asshole." Barry whispered to Lyanna.

"Whenever you're ready." Lyanna replied.

The two speedsters rushed towards Grodd, their trails of orange and white lightning intertwining as the gorilla swung his fist in their direction. Barry ducked under the strike while Lyanna skidded to a halt before leaping in the air and front-flipping above his head. Her agility was rather impressive to Barry and she certainly seemed to be faster, at least when it came to running. Barry felt himself faster in close-range fighting and reaction. Barry and Lyanna struck Grodd with a series of speed-punches. Grodd was quickly overwhelmed as he let out multiple roars of pain. The two speedsters then ran to each other before stopping, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, as they vibrated their hands before simultaneously striking Grodd in the chest. The gorilla was sent flying in the air as he crashed onto a roof.

Without giving him a chance to get himself together, Barry and Lyanna ran up the side of the building before quickly reaching the roof. Grodd had weakly gotten himself up just in time to be met with two punches in the form of orange and white lightning streaks. The gorilla was once again thrust off his feet, falling several stories off the roof as he crashed onto a car. He groaned weakly, his spear lost, his armor and bones broken as he laid there before sinking into unconsciousness. Barry and Lyanna sped to the ground as the two speedsters chuckled in celebration.

"With Grodd down, that'll leave the rest of his army in a panic without their leader." Lyanna noted.

Barry nodded, recognizing her as the more experienced speedster. "What do you think we should do next?"

"Lock them in," Lyanna suggested. "Trap them in this part of the city. In the panic, they may reach wherever the others are evacuating civilians in the city. The stampede would kill millions."

"You're right," Barry replied as he looked around before looking back at her. "We coordinate our attacks together, take out one or two at a time, knock out as many as we can and stop them from getting to the ferries and bridges."

Lyanna nodded before she and Barry took off.

At one of the destroyed and torn apart bridges, Joe and Harry kept a breach open with an extrapolator while several people, men, women, and children, went through. The two kept the line in formation and kept them going as they hurried the evacuation.

"Go, go, go!" Harry ordered. "Get out of here!"

From the corner of his eye, he could see Singh and a unit of CCPD officers guiding evacuations on the docks right under them. The evacuations would take much longer with millions of people having to leave the city in a rush and in the midst of invasion and danger.

"How many more of these things are there?!" Cisco yelled in frustration as vibe blasted two Dominators with his bare hands.

Wally and Jesse vibrated their hands as they punched a gorilla directly in the dead center of their chest, sending it flying before it crashed on the ground unconsciously.

"You think that's hard?" Wally asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Try dealing with those things…" Jesse groaned in exhaustion, leaning on her knees as she breathed heavily.

"We're not down yet…" Cisco sighed weakly.

The three of them watched as a sea of Dominators with gauntlets on their arms and telepathic, super-sized gorillas with armor and spears united, throwing aside their differences and going after their new common enemies. Wally and Jesse rose to their feet before rushing towards the army in streaks of yellow lightning while Cisco raised his hands before sending two beams of vibe blasts.

Brainiac roared in a rage as he threw a large piece of his ship's equipment at a wall, causing it to be dented and scratched before the piece clanged as it fell to the ground. A pair of Dominators stood by the entrance of the front headquarter room of the ship as they watched an enraged Brainiac scream.

"How did this happen?" Brainiac roared furiously. "How was it that Barry Allen escaped and took Lyanna Einar? Now, I have lost not one but two speedsters of vital importance! My progress, my studies, my two best resources…all gone!"

"We've tracked both speedsters back down to Central City, sire." one of the Dominators informed calmly, speaking in the telepathic language that all Dominators did.

Brainiac breathed heavily as the humanoid calmed himself before speaking. "We shall retrieve them eventually. Do you have locations for all the other heroes?"

"Yes, my lord," the other Dominator replied. "For all of them."

Brainiac hummed slightly. "Proceed with the hourly killings as I planned: ten thousand lives for every hour Barry Allen doesn't surrender himself and Lyanna Einar. Prepare for a strike on STAR City and in the meantime, commence Project Knightfall. If we cannot kill these heroes ourselves, then perhaps we can have them kill each other for us. An empire destroyed from the outside can rise again, but one broken from within…is forever dead."

A/N: To anyone who doesn't know the pronunciation for Lyanna's last name: Einar. It's (AY-NAR). It's a Scandinavian name that means "battle leader" or "bold warrior" as I kinda wanted to look for an interesting one.

This chapter was solely focused on the ongoing battle in central city. The next will focus on all of our heroes together.

Please review this story with any feedback you have if you're enjoying it, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.